The
Movie Guide of the Detroit News suggested to husbands, "Make Your
Wife Happy, Take Her to a Movie." At the Redford, patrons enjoyed double
bills of movies first released in late 1955, including Rebel
Without a Cause (James Dean), Artists
and Models (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), and The
Tender Trap (Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds).

The
movie version of the famous stage musical Oklahoma!
with Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones opened in Detroit at the United Artists
Theatre on February 21, 1956. It had earlier opened in New York City on
October 13, 1955 and in Los Angeles on November 18, 1955.

The
United Artists Theatre had been closed since December 4, 1955 to prepare
for the new Todd-AO widescreen process that was used for the first time
with Oklahoma!.

"The
surrey with the fringe on the top is at last clip-clopping across the
huge United Artists Theater seamless screen in the Todd-AO production
of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!' in Eastman Color," wrote
Detroit Free Press Movie Critic Helen Bower on February 22, 1956.
"From the first sight of Gordon MacRae on horseback under a blue
sky, riding through a field of corn higher than his head, you know that
something new has been added to movie-viewing."

"The
corn was taller than an elephant's eye, and it actually reached the sky
in the movie version of 'Oklahoma!' unveiled before a premiere audience
of 1,500 last night at the United Artists Theater," wrote Detroit
News movie reviewer Al Weitschat on February 21, 1956. "The picture
was filmed in the latest of the wide-screen processes called Todd-AO (Todd-American
Optical)."